part0005

If you’re one of the two-thirds of Americans (or 30 percent of the rest of the world ) who are overweight, then answer is probably “no.”

It is likely that you are struggling with one of the most common problems people have with their health—losing weight and keeping it off.

Perhaps you can’t get your body back to how it looked in high school. Maybe your body has never looked the way you wanted it to, but you know you need to make that change. Or you might simply want to take part in activities with your friends and family, but the extra weight is holding you back.

Furthermore, perhaps the only thing worse than what you see in the mirror is what you see in your mind. When you picture your self-image, it’s so disappointing that it shatters your self-confidence. It can affect your ability to interact with other people and advance your career, and even how you feel on a day-to-day basis.

As you’ve gotten older, you’ve lost interest in intimacy because of the extra weight. You don’t like how you look. You don’t like how you feel. And you don’t have the strength and endurance to do the activities that others seem to effortlessly enjoy.

Unfortunately, there are a wide range of negative effects if you don’t make a permanent change in your weight loss efforts. So let’s start with the “scary stuff” that most people tend to ignore.

Overweight people are more likely to die from nearly every single cause of death, ranging from heart disease to cancer. The bigger you are, the younger you will die.

One of the biggest predictors of early death is the additional inches around the waistline. The more inches you have, the sooner you will die. Two-thirds of all obese people have hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity-related diseases.

Consider these recent statistics . At a worldwide population of approximately 7 billion people, 2.1 billion of them are overweight or obese.

According to the World Health Organization , obesity rates have tripled in the last 40 years. One out of every three American citizens is considered obese, and obesity is the fifth leading cause of death.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine , every single year, a high body mass index is responsible for more than four million deaths around the world. In simple terms, that means that, every single year, seven percent of all deaths are caused by being overweight.

According to the National Cancer Institute , over nine percent of all new cancer cases in women and over three percent of all cancer cases in men were due to them being overweight or obese in 2012.

According to the World Health Organization , every single year, more people die from being overweight than underweight. In the United States, the obesity epidemic costs $210 billion a year . Unfortunately, the US leads the world in this epidemic .

One of the leading causes of this obesity pandemic is sugar addiction, which has the same effect on the brain as illegal drugs. According to multiple studies (see here and here ), it causes an increase in dopamine levels, which leads to behaviors such as bingeing, craving, withdrawal, and dependence. It’s been labeled quite accurately as the world’s most popular drug , surpassing the cocaine reward and lighting up the same rewards at brain centers as highly addictive drugs .

According to the Center for Disease Control and the Harvard School of Public Health , extra pounds can cause heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, multiple types of cancer, diminished reproductive and respiratory functions, mood issues, and memory problems as well.

Obesity-related diseases are the cause of so much preventable death. Being obese and overweight is associated with a decrease in life expectancy by as much as one third , as well as shattering the quality of your life.

Fortunately, things aren’t hopeless. According to the International Journal of Obesity , even modest weight loss can have instant beneficial results on your health. You’ll start to feel stronger, healthier, and more vibrant with confidence. Your clothes will fit better, you won’t feel as tired, and your heart problems and other health issues will start to disappear.

Depending on how much weight you need to lose, it could take longer for some of these results to start to appear, but believe me—it’s going to happen. You can reverse so many of the health problems that you think are eternal.

As you improve your health, you’re going to experience a decreased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and certain types of cancers.

You’re going to experience regulated blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure levels , improved mobility , decreased joint and muscular pain , improved sleep, and increased energy.

A study by Swedish researchers found that you will even improve your memory as you start to shed those pounds. Most important of all, you’ll decrease your overall body inflammation—the root cause of even more diseases than we’ve already listed .

In addition to all these health benefits, there are some pretty sweet lifestyle benefits too, starting with how much less money you’ll spend on health care .

While many people think that eating unhealthily is cheaper, when you factor in the medical costs of this behavior, it ends up being significantly more expensive. The amount of money spent on managing the effects of being overweight and obese is simply astounding.

According to the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation , losing weight can decrease your health care costs by as much as 90 percent.

Even better, you will have the potential to make more money. According to a longitudinal study based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, obese workers receive lower wages than people with lower weight.

Imagine feeling no more shame in changing rooms or clothing stores. Imagine no longer going to a specialty clothing store or asking them if they have an XXXL in the back of the store.

You’ll also have greater involvement in your social life. You’ll improve your relationships with your family, your partner, your children, and your coworkers. You’ll be able to participate in more activities with them. You will last longer and enjoy days out with them.

You will be able to exercise, climb stairs, hike, and run with ease. You’ll avoid many potentially embarrassing situations, like having someone in public ask, “When are you due?” when you’re not even pregnant, or ask you to step on a luggage scale because they’re afraid your weight will cause the plane to crash.

There are also some personal benefits. Your confidence, body image, and self-esteem are going to increase dramatically .

An interesting study has shown that losing just 10 percent of your body weight can create clinically meaningful improvements in self-esteem . That means your mood and vitality will improve. You’ll have a greater sense of accomplishment and empowerment. You’ll start to feel like you’re capable of affecting the world around you.

Instead of being embarrassed by your body, you’re going to be proud and excited by it. Instead of thinking that the people who take pictures of themselves in swimsuits and post them on social media are tacky, you’re going to turn into one of them.

You’re going to love the amazing improvements in your love life. You’re going to be able to experience more pleasure, more passion, and deeper and more meaningful love with your partner than ever before.

Okay, we’ll admit that it’s easy to gloss over both the negatives of obesity and the positive habits. You’re a smart person. You don’t need to be beaten over the head by a scary list of facts and figures.

Instead, we imagine you already know that it’s time to take action and lose some weight—all you’re looking for is a simple plan that can help you do it!

If that sounds familiar, then let’s talk about a simple concept that will be important as you work your way through this book.

Both Jonathan and Steve (the authors) want you to focus on a long-term strategy that’s easy to accomplish, and, more importantly, sustainable . Our goal is to help you lose between one and two pounds a week . When you’re losing weight at this rate, it ensures that you’re losing fat rather than water weight or muscle. With this target in mind, we can start to break down those numbers into something very simple.

One pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories. If your caloric intake is 500 calories less than the amount that you burn each day, you lose a pound every single week. Just as easily, you can also increase how many calories you burn by 500 calories per day. If you do both and double your efforts, you can eliminate 1,000 calories a day. That way, you’re losing two pounds a week. That might sound hard, but it’s achievable.

The simplest and most manageable way to maintain a healthy weight is counting calories. While this doesn’t sound as glamorous or as trendy as many other diets, what it does have going for it is that it’s worked and will continue to work for a very long time.

If you eat more calories than you burn, your weight increases. If you eat the same amount of calories as you burn, your weight stays the same. If you eat less calories than you burn, your weight decreases—and that’s our goal.

Losing weight using this method does require change, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. The simplest way is to look at what you’re eating every single day and eliminate the highest calorie or the most inefficient meals. Look for that indulgence or that one item that you know is nothing but empty calories and simply remove it from your diet.

If you always have a fancy coffee that’s actually just a little bit of coffee covered in caramel and foam, that is a lot of calories you could avoid. You could remove it from your morning. One change is often enough to start us on the path to long-term success.

Throughout this book, we’re going to follow this simple formula: Burn more calories than you take in. To keep the math simple, our goal throughout every example will be to burn 500 calories more than you eat every single day.

As long as you follow some of the techniques from this book, you’ll find weight loss can be easy. Instead of shooting for the stars and going for dramatic and painful weight loss, we’re choosing something that’s manageable so that we can change your lifestyle. Instead of being on a diet, this lifestyle simply becomes who you are.

The best part of this book is that you only need to fully commit to a handful of the strategies we’re sharing with you to cut those extra 500 calories.

And that’s what you will learn in the following book that we’ve titled, Weight Loss Mastery: 5 Habits to Shed Belly Fat and Keep it Off for Good.